Edible seeds include a wide variety of nuts, kernels, legumes, beans, and the like. Common examples include nuts, peanuts, almonds, pistachios, cashews, hazelnuts, filberts, macadamia nuts, brazil nuts, pine nuts, pecans, walnuts, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, cocoa seeds, grains, coffee beans, and the like. Such seeds are often used by snack food manufacturers, confectioners, ice cream manufacturers, cereal manufacturers, bakers, chefs, cooks, and so forth. Roasted seed products, such as roasted peanuts, almonds, cashews and the like, are a popular consumer snack product. Roasted seeds can also be a savory source of dietary protein and fiber. Roasted snack nuts or seeds generally refers to a category of edible nuts or seeds where raw seeds, such as those described above, are removed from a shell, possibly removing a seed coat, and then roasting the resulting kernel using forced air ovens, oil fryers, or other heating methods to develop a roasted nut flavor and appropriate crunchy texture.
In some instances, to make a crunchier roasted seed and/or a roasted seed with a lighter color, the raw seeds may be subjected to a pre-roast soaking in a pool of water to infuse moisture into the uncooked seed kernels. However, there are several shortcomings to soaking seeds in a large excess of water. Soaking tends to extract out soluble seed constituents such as sugar, minerals, and other seed components, which may account for a reduced flavor and/or color development during subsequent roasting. Over time, the buildup of such seed constituents in the soak water may also make it difficult to form a uniform finished product because the concentration of extracted constituents in the soak water may vary over time and render the final composition of the soaked seeds variable and difficult to produce consistent products. Moreover, the soak water containing dissolved seed constituents may present challenges for proper disposal and/or require complex clarification procedures to remove the dissolved components.
Snack nuts and seeds can also be enhanced with seasonings and/or flavors that are commonly topically applied to an outer surface of the roasted snack nuts. However, the topical additives, in some cases, generally do not remain adequately adhered to the seed surface and may fall off into the package forming crumbs at the bottom of the bag or make a mess in the consumer's hands upon eating. Various edible adhesives, such as maltodextrin, gelatin, viscous honey solutions and the like, have been attempted to better adhere such seasonings to the seed's surface, but such coatings can form an unnatural appearing nut or present a heavy flavor. When adding seasonings or flavors to roasted nuts and seeds, it is generally accepted that many complex flavors and seasonings need to be added post roast. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,304 to Sharma explains that the flavors must be added after roasting because, if added before roasting, they will tend to be lost and/or altered during the roasting process, which can result in inadequate, undesirable, and/or distorted flavors in the roasted seeds.
Seeds may also be seasoned by soaking in a pool of brine (aqueous salt solution) prior to roasting, which tends to infuse salt into the raw seeds. However, soaking raw seeds in a brine solution still runs into the shortcomings discussed above when soaking raw seeds in water. Seed constituents tend to be extracted out of the seed and the brine tends to accumulate these dissolved constituents.
Instead of soaking in a pool of water or brine, other processes attempt to apply water or a brine solution to the nuts, but tend to be limited in application. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,597,973 to Moore and 5,718,936 to Porter are examples. However, neither patent addresses the problem of achieving maximum water and salt uptake in a system that does not soak the seeds in a pool of water. In Moore's process, for example, the raw nuts are subjected to a pretreatment with 265° F. to 290° F. heated air to cause the surface cells of the nuts to expand in order to render the nuts permeable to a brine solution. However, Moore's process then applies the brine solution to the nuts when still at the elevated temperatures, which may hinder water and/or salt uptake because the high nut temperatures may cause evaporation of water as it initially contacts the nuts. In Porter's process, a first coating zone applies a brine solution to provide a coating of salt on the nuts. However, Porter's first coating zone includes the simultaneous addition of the raw nuts and all the brine solution at the same time. That is, the amount of brine desired to be added to the nuts is applied all at once in bulk to the nuts. Thus, it is likely in Porter's process that there is localized pooling of the brine because the large initial application of brine solution can not be coated or infused rapidly enough into the nuts when all of the brine is added to the nuts at one time. There will likely be localized pooling of the brine in Porter's process, which will also likely result in the seed constituent extraction problems discussed above with soaking.